The original story that hatched Mothra, one of the most beloved monsters in the “kaijuverse”—available in English for the first timeMystical and benevolent, the colossal lepidopteran Mothra has been one of the most beloved kaiju since 1961, when The Luminous Fairies and Mothra was originally published in Japanese. Commissioned by Tōhō Studios from three of Japan’s most prominent postwar literary writers (Shin’ichirō Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga, and Yoshie ...

Winner of the Sakutaro Hagiwara Prize and the Murasaki Shikibu PrizeCaught between two cultures, award-winning author Hiromi Ito tackles subjects like aging, death, and suffering with dark humor, illuminating the bittersweet joys of being alive.The first novel to appear in English by award-winning author Hiromi Ito explores the absurdities, complexities, and challenges experienced by a woman caring for her two families: her husband and daug...

The first English translations of the original novellas about the iconic kaijū GodzillaGodzilla emerged from the sea to devastate Tokyo in the now-classic 1954 film, produced by Tōhō Studios and directed by Ishirō Honda, creating a global sensation and launching one of the world’s most successful movie and media franchises. Awakened and transformed by nuclear weapons testing, Godzilla serves as a terrifying metaphor for humanity’s shortsighted destructiven...

**The intensely confessional work of Japan’s most famous modernist poet, considered the Japanese Rimbaud, whose poems have inspired cultlike devotion—especially among fans of the hit anime show Bungo Stray Dogs—in a brilliant new translation, the most comprehensive in EnglishA Penguin Classic**Nakahara Chūya lived only to age thirty yet ranks among the finest of Japanese poets, evoking in his work the alienation, ennui, and romantic melancholy of a changing world. ...

I want to get rid of Kanoko/I want to get rid of filthy little Kanoko/I want to get rid of or kill Kanoko who bites off my nipples.A landmark dual collection by one of the most important contemporary Japanese poets, in a "generous and beautifully rendered" translation.Now widely taught as a feminist classic, KILLING KANOKO is a defiantly autobiographical exploration of sexuality, community, and postpartum depression. Featuring some of her most famous poems, Ito wri...

Tokyo: Memory, Imagination, and the City is a collection of eight essays that explore Tokyo urban space from the perspective of memory in works of the imagination—novels, short stories, poetry, essays, and films. Written by scholars of Japanese studies based in England, Germany, Japan, and the United States, the book focuses on texts produced in Japan since the 1980s. The closing years of the Showa period (1926-1989) were a watershed decade of spatial transformation in Tokyo. It was also a...

Die Texte (größtenteils Erstveröffentlichungen) widmen sich poetischen Identitätsspielen. Welcher Zauber liegt im Spiel der Identitäten, im Wandel der Formen? Wie wirken Literatur, Wissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit aufeinander? Was können die Figuren des Dritten versprechen, die sich zwischen Kulturen, Ethnien, Geschlechtern und Sprachen bewegen? Yoko Tawada stellte das Thema, schrieb selbst einen literarischen Essay und gibt diesen Band der Reih heraus. Beiträge von renommierten Autor*innen...

From one of the foremost poets in contemporary Japan comes this entrancing memoir that traces a boy’s childhood and its intersection with the rise of the Japanese empire and World War II. Originally published in 1970, this translation is the first available in English.In twelve chapters that visit and revisit critical points in his boyhood, Twelve Views from the Distance presents a vanished time and place through the eyes of an accomplished poet. Recounting memories from h...

**'These stories are waves of fury, desire and delicious cruelty, always kissed by beauty and death' Mariana EnríquezA new selection of lyrically haunting 1960s short stories, from a Japanese literary icon**A writer is seized by apocalyptic visions, a trio of beatniks dance to modern jazz in the ruins of an abandoned church, and a séance brings forth the reproachful spirits of the military dead.In Voices of the Fallen Heroes, stark autobiography contrasts w...

**The intensely confessional work of Japan’s most famous modernist poet, considered the Japanese Rimbaud, whose poems have inspired cultlike devotion—especially among fans of the hit anime show Bungo Stray Dogs—in a brilliant new translation, the most comprehensive in EnglishA Penguin Classic**Nakahara Chūya lived only to age thirty yet ranks among the finest of Japanese poets, evoking in his work the alienation, ennui, and romantic melancholy of a changing world. ...

Godzilla emerged from the sea to devastate Tokyo in the now-classic 1954 film, creating a global sensation and launching one of the world's most successful movie and media franchises. Awakened and transformed by nuclear weapons testing, Godzilla serves as a terrifying metaphor for humanity's shortsighted destructiveness: this was the intent of Shigeru Kayama, the science fiction writer who drafted the 1954 original film and its first sequel and, in 1955, published these novellas.Al...

‘A book that everyone should read’ The TimesA harrowing, heart-rending first-hand account of the bombing of Nagasaki – and the acts of human kindness left in its wake.On 9th August 1945, the Japanese city of Nagasaki is hit by an atomic bomb. Forty thousand people are killed instantly. Doctor Takashi Nagai is not one of them.Pulling himself, broken and bloodied, from the wreckage that was once the city’s university hospital...